00:01:15.540We got the summer dust kicked off of us and question period resumed.
00:01:20.420And give us your quick take on what it felt being back in Parliament and kind of the vibe you got from the government benches.
00:01:29.240I really got a sense that there's still some significant challenges that the country's facing right now.
00:01:34.760Obviously, with the tariff situation, the impact that that's having on affordability, not just for consumers, but also businesses as well.
00:01:43.100I thought our position today, looking out for the little guy, is an important one because I, like you, spent the summer talking to individuals who are facing the affordability, the housing insecurity, food insecurity crisis, as well as businesses that are struggling with the day-to-day issue of tariffs, right?
00:02:02.540A lot of capital on the sideline right now.
00:03:49.440go stand on the bridge on Highway 25 in Milton and watch all the trucks that are going down to
00:03:54.420the United States and those that are coming back from the United States into Canada. You can't just
00:03:58.620flip a switch on trade. 3% of our trade goes to Europe, 85% goes to the United States. Europe has
00:04:05.200got a greater regulatory and legislative burden in place. It's much tougher to do business in Europe
00:04:11.380than it is in the United States, notwithstanding the situation with Donald Trump right now.
00:04:16.120But you can't just flip a switch, Jamie, and expect that you're going to diversify your trade into Europe.
00:04:21.100There are many, many businesses in this country, as I spoke about earlier,
00:04:24.900whose business models are based on the fact that they trade with the United States open and free trade, tariff-free trade.
00:04:32.200And they become increasingly important in what we're doing to not just make sure that that tariff-free barrier for trade is there,
00:04:41.800but also to make sure that we're trying to, in any way we can, to work on this situation with the United States.
00:04:49.400Look, what this situation has done is it's opened us up.
00:04:53.220It's opened a wound, not just because of the threats of the American president,
00:04:58.100but it's also opened a wound that has been self-inflicted on us
00:05:03.080because of a legislative and regulatory regime in our country that has held us back
00:05:07.640and created barriers in terms of our natural resource extraction and supply around the world,
00:05:14.480interprovincial trade barriers, all of those still exist right now.
00:05:18.160I mean, when you look at the resource sector, 69 and 48 are still in existence.
00:05:22.600You know, that should speak volumes to people, just where the government's mindset is
00:05:26.600when it comes to using our natural resources to feed the world with clean Canadian energy.
00:05:32.640We have many, many problems that still exist in this country that we have to solve,
00:05:36.960not the least of which, as I said, is the interprovincial trade barriers that are still in
00:05:41.040place in September of 2026 that the Prime Minister told us would be gone in July of 2025.
00:05:47.820Over Justin Trudeau's term, we saw about a trillion dollars of investment leave Canada. Now,
00:05:53.240the government says it's trying to win some of that back. It'll be an uphill climb, I think,
00:05:58.380based on, as you mentioned, not to mention our regulatory environment, right? There's a lot of
00:06:03.320things unfortunately at play here. But the government has launched its new and improved
00:06:08.560Maple Fund. So we have $50 billion here for a Maple Fund. Can you give us the quick elevator
00:06:15.520pitch? What is the Maple Fund? Well, the Maple Fund is an announcement that was made by the
00:06:20.440Prime Minister during the recent investment summit. It's a combination of investment from
00:06:26.060the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. And surprise, surprise, Brookfield Asset Management,
00:06:33.920the two are coming together to put $25 billion in over a period of five years to,
00:06:39.160I'll use the Prime Minister's words, to catalyze investment into this country in infrastructure.
00:06:46.620And it's within a five-year timeframe. There's been some criticism towards it,
00:06:53.980obviously as it relates to Brookfield's involvement and the Prime Minister's conflict of interest.
00:07:00.360But there's been some like the Canadian Chamber of Commerce who's come out in favour of it,
00:07:05.260that it will spur on investment in this country. So, you know, the devil is in the details,
00:07:12.420always is, right? And so we're keeping an eye on things. And I think every Canadian should be
00:07:16.960keeping an eye on this for sure. But unfortunately, some of the work that you're doing,
00:07:21.240I guess fortunately for the opposition and transparency in Parliament, but unfortunately for the government, there are a lot of questions still out there, as you just said, but also the perceived conflict of interest with the Prime Minister and Brookfield, because everything seems to be tailored with government policy towards Brookfield's goals.
00:07:44.920It may be coincidence, maybe, but there seems to be a lot going on behind the scenes.1.00
00:07:50.180And that transparency and accountability, and you're right, is becoming increasingly more difficult because of the transactional majority that the Prime Minister has picked up now with the floor crossers.1.00
00:08:01.140By seizing control of Parliament and seizing control of the committees, particularly the oversight committees like ethics, government operations, and public accounts, it becomes increasingly difficult to hold the government to account, right?0.99
00:08:13.840So if we want to do a study, for example, on the condo bailout, I recall the committee back in July, and the Liberals immediately shut the committee down by adjourning the meeting, right?
00:08:24.260So we didn't even get to deal with the motion that was before us to launch an investigation into the $3.5 billion condo bailout to Liberal donors and investors as well.
00:08:34.900So that's becoming increasingly more difficult.
00:08:37.800The principle at play here was really started in 2020 when Mark Carney became the economic advisor to Justin Trudeau.
00:08:50.320So that didn't subject to him as a designated public officeholder, didn't subject him to any of the conflict of interest regime that exists.
00:08:58.360So he basically had free will to do anything he wanted within that prime minister's office while Justin Trudeau was playing prime minister.
00:09:05.820And what he did was set up the principle of public risk for private return, aligning public policy with Brookfield's strategy.
00:09:14.740And what we're seeing now with this Maple Fund is, and again, the CPPIB is an arm's length organization, right?
00:09:21.800They're meant to act independent of government, and generally they do.
00:09:25.840But this alignment of public pension with Brookfield, and again, public risk, private return, having Brookfield involved with public policy aligning with Brookfield's strategy, it calls into question just how involved the Prime Minister may have been in these deliberations.
00:09:49.820I will tell you that he's appointed six members of the CPP Investment Board since he became Prime Minister in March of 2025.
00:09:58.320So, you know, again, it goes back to some of the work that we did at the Ethics Committee.
00:10:02.640And we studied the Conflict of Interest Act and we did an in-depth study on the Prime Minister's conflicts of interest.
00:10:09.160And at the end of it, the principal recommendation that came from our committee is that the Prime Minister divest himself of all, all of his assets related to Brookfield and others so that that perception of conflict of interest wouldn't be there.
00:10:26.620right? Because the only way I feel, and I still feel this today, even since that report was
00:10:32.760published, the only way that Canadians can feel confident that the Prime Minister is making
00:10:37.500decisions, not in his interest, but in the interest of Canadians, is if he divests himself
00:10:43.440of all of those assets. He right now has 574 stocks in the United States. Three of them are
00:10:49.720in Canada. Over 90% of his portfolio is invested in the United States. And so it begs the question,
00:12:14.220He was just meeting with the Indian Prime Minister.
00:12:16.160I'm not sure this clip makes too much sense.
00:12:19.560His response, I think we'll talk about in a bit.
00:12:22.900But it just goes to show the direction the government is doing with their control of the Canada Pension Investment Board and where they're kind of directing taxpayer, because you're forced to pay into it, pass taxpayers' money in their retirement.
00:14:05.600So again, when I go back to this principle of public risk for private return,
00:14:10.200it's easy to put up public money for risk.
00:14:13.300But on the back end of that, there are companies that are making significant gains
00:14:18.580while all of the risk is being put on the back of taxpayers, right?
00:14:23.500Now, I'm not suggesting for a second because, you know,
00:14:26.560the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, as I said, they've made those investments.
00:14:31.060I'm not suggesting for a second that that risk is there
00:14:34.860because we don't know in principle how this is going to play itself out.
00:14:38.780But I can tell you that in all of the deliberations and all of the things that we've heard at the Ethics Committee, this principle of putting up public capital, public money for private risk could very much be in play here.
00:14:54.960And again, a caveat to that is the Pension Board has had tremendous success around the world with the rate of return on investors.
00:15:02.080But, you know, the devil is always in the details in these things.
00:15:05.400And, you know, the one thing that is common throughout is that Brookfield's name pops up all the time.
00:15:11.140All right. Airport privatization. We've heard that a few times.
00:15:13.880And I think that that's something we'd like a bit more information on.
00:15:18.120I think, relatively speaking, I think conservatives support ensuring our airports are as competitive as possible
00:15:25.920and consumers are getting the best price and the best possible service that is available to be offered.
00:15:32.460Problem is, I'm not sure, based on the details we have already, that the government sees the same way.
00:15:43.120I'm announcing today that we will seek private investment through long-term concessions to operate Canada's four largest airports.
00:15:52.060Following best practice in other countries, the government of Canada will retain ownership of the underlying land and assets, but we will unlock their true value.
00:16:02.080by bringing in new capital and expertise to their operations and their growth.
00:16:08.080We will reinvest the tens of billions of dollars of capital that we raise
00:16:13.240into infrastructure that Canada needs for the next generation.
00:16:18.580That will mean investing in regional airports,
00:16:22.580providing better and more affordable regional and remote air connections.
00:16:27.700It will mean a better passenger experience.
00:16:30.840It will mean investing in new local transportation infrastructure to make commutes easier and faster for all Canadians.
00:16:39.780Generally, I think there could be some support there.
00:16:42.480Did you notice at the bottom on the ticker that it read the Prime Minister hopes to retrieve a trillion dollars in investment through his summit that he held not too long ago?
00:16:53.920RBC said a trillion dollars in investment left Canada during the Liberal reign.
00:16:58.500So it's basically just coming back to level now.
00:17:00.840It kind of reminds me of, you know, the movie Goldmember when Dr. Evil puts his finger to his mouth and says,
00:17:11.560Because he's holding Goldmember up, or not Goldmember, but Austin Powers up for ransom or something.
00:17:16.960So we don't know what the true numbers are.
00:17:19.500We don't know what this investment is going to look like.
00:17:22.380you know, the reality is that the government already owns the lands and the assets that
00:17:28.180airports operate on. They're operated by greater airport authorities, right? For example, at Pearson,
00:17:35.400it's the GTAA. And so these are nonprofit organizations that do a very good job at
00:17:42.180operating the airports, ensuring the safety of passengers and leasing out, you know, the
00:17:47.260concessions that are in there, very similar to what the prime minister is talking about.
00:17:51.080There is no question that there is an infrastructure deficit in this country as it relates to aviation and airports as well.
00:18:00.000I just, over the summer, I had a chance to visit the Victoria Airport and met with some very smart people at the Victoria Airport Authority.
00:18:08.600And they talked about their specific infrastructure deficit.
00:18:12.140But there is broader concern about some of these concession agreements and how they're going to play themselves out.
00:18:18.100what's the regulatory framework going to look like.
00:18:21.620Canada's already one of the most regulated industries when it comes to aviation,
00:20:56.320I know you can, but you can because the guests always get the last word and you get to close it out.
00:21:00.680I think, you know, people need to pay attention on the connection, again, between the Prime Minister, Brookfield, and some of these other public investment opportunities that exist.
00:21:16.600You know, this BGTF-1, this is the elephant in the room when it comes to the Prime Minister because, as I said earlier, he stands to make millions of dollars from it.
00:21:25.300So every investment, every decision that's been made has to be looked through the lens of what it means to the prime minister and his personal financial portfolio.
00:21:35.340So is he making decisions? And look, look, I mean, none of us are naive, Jamie, to think that he's not aware, like he's aware of the decisions that are being made.
00:21:45.820He's the prime minister of the country, right? Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, prime minister, this deal.
00:21:49.540like don't be don't be people should not be naive to think that but we have to
00:21:53.040look at it through a lens of you know how is this benefiting the Prime Minister
00:21:57.100and the connection to Brookfield and other things and I will say this too
00:22:01.480that you know we asked we asked specifically as a committee that he
00:22:06.040divest his and I know that there's significant consequences to that but if
00:22:11.020you truly want to act in the best interest of the kind of a country and
00:22:14.300not have this cloud of hanging over your head